IslamicASA is developing a publication program for source-based scholarship, documentary reconstructions, translations, collection notes, and a future electronic journal dedicated to the history of Islam and Muslims in the Americas.
Toward a Journal of Islam in the Americas
The IslamicASA publication program is being built around a simple premise: many important sources relating to Islam and Muslims in the Americas remain scattered, unpublished, untranslated, inaccessible, or disconnected from the communities and scholars who need them.
Rather than rushing into a fixed journal schedule, IslamicASA is first developing a foundation of research papers, documentary editions, translations, and collection studies. These publications will help establish the editorial standards, source practices, and scholarly direction needed for a sustainable future journal.
Publication Status: IslamicASA has not yet launched a formal peer-reviewed journal. The current focus is the development of a serious publications program that may grow into an electronic journal, monograph series, documentary editions, and special publications.
Current Model: Documentary Reconstruction
Several IslamicASA projects are not simply essays; they are documentary reconstructions. These studies gather scattered records, identify overlooked persons and communities, compare conflicting claims, and rebuild historical narratives from surviving fragments.
Canada’s First Muslims
Canada’s First Muslims is an example of the kind of source-based reconstruction IslamicASA seeks to develop. The project brings together census entries, marriage records, family evidence, newspaper references, and archival traces in order to reassess claims about early Muslim presence in Canada.
The importance of this work is methodological as well as historical. Like the forthcoming Mandingo Society study, it demonstrates how Muslim lives and communities can be reconstructed from records that were not created to preserve Muslim history directly.
Publication Forms Under Development
- IslamicASA PapersSubstantial research papers and documentary reconstructions released when the evidence and argument are ready.
- Documentary EditionsAnnotated editions of rare texts, archival records, newspaper materials, correspondence, and institutional documents.
- Manuscript TranslationsTranslations and contextual studies of Arabic, Ajami, and related manuscript materials connected to Islam in the Americas.
- Collection NotesShorter studies of printed works, ephemera, photographs, catalogs, and audiovisual materials in the IslamicASA archive.
- Bibliographic EssaysGuides to sources, repositories, published scholarship, digitized collections, and research pathways.
- Future Electronic JournalA possible peer-reviewed or editorially reviewed journal once the advisory, editorial, and institutional structure is in place.
Forthcoming Flagship Research
Reconstructing the Mandingo Society of Trinidad is being developed as a major IslamicASA research project. The study will examine an early Muslim community and institution through newspapers, government records, genealogical evidence, colonial sources, and related documentary fragments.
The project is significant not only for Trinidad and Caribbean history, but also for the wider study of Islam in the Americas. It asks how historians can recover Muslim institutions when the surviving record is incomplete, scattered, and often preserved outside conventional Islamic archives.
Editorial Principles
- Prioritize primary sources and transparent citation.
- Distinguish evidence from speculation.
- Preserve uncertainty where the record is incomplete.
- Make rare or inaccessible materials easier to locate, understand, and use.
- Respect archival ownership, copyright, and repository restrictions.
- Publish work in forms accessible to both scholars and interested communities.
Submissions and Collaboration
IslamicASA welcomes contact from researchers, archivists, librarians, collectors, translators, genealogists, and community historians interested in contributing to or advising future publications.
Prospective contributors should contact IslamicASA at info@islamicasa.org. Submissions may include research papers, document studies, translations, collection notes, bibliographies, or proposals for collaborative publication projects.